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Last Updated: Thursday, 01 June 2023 11:09

Throughout the year a number of exchanges and activities with our Sister Cities are held involving members of our community. Through these activities our communities become richer, more culturally diverse and understanding. Keep up-to-date with what is happening across our Region here. 

Sister City photographic exhibition and competition 

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and provided a collection of amazing photographs that showcase what makes our region special as well as Takatsuki City.  It provides are great opportunity to see the sights, similarities and differences between our region/city.

We are excited to announce the winners of the Sister City photographic competition. A showcase of the winning entries, as well as all the entries is available here.

Toowoomba open category winners

1^st prize – Paul Knie with image Westview

2^nd prize – Mark Laurie with image Carnival of Flowers from above

3^rd prize – Tim Williams with image Hodgson Vale Views

Toowoomba youth category winners

1^st prize – Gracie Lord with image Watchful Eye

2^nd prize – Hudson Oliver with image Toowoomba Wall Art

3^rd prize – Vivienne Lord with image Camouflaged

Congratulations to all the winners!

Online photograph exhibition

The Toowoomba Photographic Society and the Takatsuki Kōeisha Photograph Association have curated a beautiful exhibition displaying 12 photographs from Takatsuki and 12 photographs from the Toowoomba Region. This year the exhibition will be held online.

Takatsuki Art Festival

Each November, Toowoomba’s Japanese Sister City, Takatsuki, holds an annual art festival to stimulate community activity and nurture the talents of young artists in Takatsuki and their different Sister Cities, including our Region. 

Since 2018, a primary school from our Region has been invited to participate in the Takatsuki Art Festival. 

Previous entrants include:

• 2018: Toowoomba Anglican School and the Toowoomba Art Society Junior class
• 2019: Highfields State School
• 2020: there was no 2020 festival due to COVID-19 restrictions.
• 2021: Oakey State School

Registrations of interest now open for 2022

The opportunity will be open to another Toowoomba Region primary school in 2022. If your school is interested in entering, please register here.

Online school exchanges with Takatsuki Schools

During October and November 2021, three Toowoomba schools held online video conference calls with three schools from Toowoomba’s Japanese Sister City, Takatsuki. Eleven Zoom call sessions were held, with 620 students participating. The students exchanged presentations about their daily life, exploring the similarities and differences between life in Japan and Australia.

Year 6 students from Highfields State School and Gunge Elementary School shared four sessions. Toowoomba Grammar School, years 5 and 6 students connected with Akutagawa Elementary School over five sessions. Crows Nest State School years 5, 6 and 7 students learnt about the years 3, 4, 5 and 6 students from Kashida Elementary over two sessions.

One teacher provided the following feedback, “I have found that having a real-world opportunity to use Japanese definitely increased motivation for students, even those reluctant to speak in class were keen to talk to the students in Japan and test out what they had learnt. Knowing the video calls were upcoming gave them an incentive to practice during class time to ensure their pronunciation was correct so that they would be understood. Students loved that they discovered many common interests with the children from Takatsuki through the question and answer sessions in the video calls.”

Crows Nest shared their experience through a video that can be viewed here. 

Registrations of interest now open for 2022

If your school is interested in participating in a similar exchange, please register here. 

Conference call with Japanese Sister City, Takatsuki

On 13 November 1991, Toowoomba Region and Takatsuki City, Japan signed a Sister City Friendship agreement. The relationship has developed into a strong and very active relationship bringing many benefits to our Region. 

On 31 March 2021, Mayor Paul Antonio of Toowoomba Region and Mayor Takeshi Hamada of Takatsuki City, met online to catch up on exchanges between our two cities. The Mayor spoke about the 30^th anniversary and the commitment to the relationship, online exchanges, the impact of COVID on the community and future exchanges.  Unfortunately plans to celebrate the 30^th anniversary in Takatsuki in November 2021 had to be cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.  

You can listen to the entire conference call here: Conference call with Japanese Sister City, Takatsuki (mp4 download).

Related links

Our sister cities

How to become involved with international relations

Benefits of international partnerships 

International relations strategy